Decision Mechanics

Insight. Applied.

What the hell is “data science” anyway?!

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Too much time has been squandered on trying to define data science, AI, machine learning, data analysts, data thingymajig, etc.

Who cares? I’m happy to return to “statistics” and “programming”.

We should follow the lead of United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [“hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…

Spreadsheet error delays opening of children’s hospital

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An audit report has blamed a spreadsheet "copy and paste" error for cost overruns and delays at an Edinburgh children’s hospital.

A local politician called it

[…] one of the most expensive typos in history.

How many more high-profile spreadsheet failures is it going to take before we deem the inappropriate use of them to be professional malpractice?

16,000 coronavirus cases missed by Excel

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When the lead story in the Daily Mail complains about Excel misuse in its headline you know things have gone too far.

15,841 coronavirus cases were excluded from UK government figures as a result of

…an Excel spreadsheet reaching its maximum file size, which stopped new names being added in an automated process.

Apparently these details were not supplied to the "track and trace" programme, meaning that people exposed to the virus were not alerted—potentially leading to unnecessary infections.

I’ve been complaining about spreadsheet misuse for a decade, and this is one of the most shambolic examples I’ve come across. Blatant abuse of Excel as a ramshackle database.

This also highlights the dangers of casual automation. Without appropriate checks and balances, automated processes can fail catastrophically, and silently.

There really is no excuse for this level of incompetency. And, the worst thing is the "solution".

The technical issue has now been resolved by splitting the Excel files into batches.

Add more sticking plaster to the homespun system and press on. I can only weep.

Some additional technical details have been revealed since the story broke.